Ronnie O’Sullivan’s lead cut to 14-11 as Judd Trump charges back at Crucible

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s quest for a record-breaking seventh Crucible title was jeopardized when Judd Trump won six of the eight frames of the finals’ penultimate session to reduce the deficit to 14-11.

“Sullivan resorted to a cigarette lighter in the last frame of the afternoon to try and clean up his pesky tip, and by that point the prospect of Trump becoming just the fourth player to lose a World Finals with a session remaining was long gone .

Trump started and ended the session with centuries as he pounced on a series of mistakes from his opponent in a passage that made up for what it lacked in quality in excitement and heralded the possibility of the biggest final comeback since Dennis Taylor’s retirement in the eight-frame -Deficit in 1985.

Trump won the opening three frames of the afternoon as O’Sullivan struggled to get going, falling out of position in the opening set and missing an easy red straight in the next set to give his opponent the initiative.

It was Trump’s turn to miss an ambitious plant in the next game that ran aground with a 45 break, and O’Sullivan’s clearance for Pink put him 13-8 ahead and back in command.

Mistakes thwarted both players’ progress in the next, Trump undercutting a straight black and O’Sullivan responding by firing a red wide before Trump got over the line to make it 13-9.

And in a crucial 23rd frame, it was O’Sullivan who made the costliest of a series of errors when he rolled a red into the jaws, allowing Trump to stage a nerve-wracking clearance for pink to break away within three frames to move.

O’Sullivan eased the pressure when he was able to capitalize on a missed black from Trump to win the next, but left a superb 105 from Trump – which at 108 also broke the record for total centuries in a single world championship to play it with everyone to go to the finals on Monday night.